The forgotten world of pre-rock pop music

Conventional wisdom has it that pop music began in the 1950s, but as early as the 1920s, dance bands were soundtracking British life in the same way, writes Maddy CostaWhen Bert Ambrose died, on 11 June 1971, he was down on his luck. He was the manager of singer, Kathy Kirby, whose ­career was in terminal decline, and his own heyday was buried in the rubble of the second world war. Once, he had been one of the highest-paid musicians in Britain, a pop star before such a term was coined. He per...

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